Practical & Conscientious Parenting
Zach
Zach is a soon-to-be father who joyfully works from home creating things for the web and his family. In addition to spending hours in front of a computer, he likes playing mandolin, stirring up delectable vegan cuisine, and being outside. He wants to be a grown up when he grows up.
Home page: http://zbrustudios.com
Posts by Zach
What We’re Reading Now
Anne and I have been talking lately about how we both want to write more, but we don’t make time for it in our day. I’m not very schedule-oriented, and I don’t have many routines in my day. There’s a weird push-pull between me and schedules: I know I function well on regular sleep and exercise, but I don’t want to feel like I’m stuck in a rigid routine.
I’ve been reading The No-Cry Sleep Solution (I’ve actually been reading the one for toddlers and pre-schoolers – it was the only copy they had at our local library, so I started reading it while we waited for the version for babies to ship). One of the things the author suggests is keeping a sleep log, both for naps and night-time. Like my aversion to schedules, I’m not much of a list keeper, but I think I’m going to start doing this (especially since I already keep this list in my head, anyway).
I just finished setting up an affiliate account at IndieBound.org, a website run by the American Booksellers Association. What I like about them is that on every book page, there’s a button to either buy the book online from a local independent bookstore, or find a local brick-and-mortar independent bookstore. And the web designer in me likes that the website is really easy to use, it’s visually uncluttered (unlike Amazon), and they allow anyone to add independent bookstores to the site. A surprising number of business in Yakima have no web presence at all, including our awesome children’s book store Out On A Whim. So I wasn’t surprised that it wasn’t listed at IndieBound.org. But I was quickly able to enter all the information I have about Out On A Whim, and the listing appeared immediately!
So, with my drive to created a little more routine in my day, and a new affiliate account through IndieBound.org, we’ve decided to start a monthly feature on what we’re reading. We’re going to include what we’re reading to ourselves and what we’re reading with our little ones. With this long-winded intro out of the way, here goes:
What Zach’s reading
The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers ~ As I mentioned above, I’m reading this version, despite having neither a toddler nor a preschooler at home – the general ideas are the same as the book for babies. I’ll do a full review when I’m done, so I won’t go into much detail here, but I will say this: most of the ideas presented in the book are common sense, and it’s always good to get a reminder about common sense. What I found particularly helpful is the list of general sleep requirements for different age groups. The author is good to point out that we all have varying sleep needs, but she lays out good guidelines.
Seeds of Deception ~ Having worked with genetically modified food crops myself, I’m always interested in reading arguments in favor and against genetically modified foods. The author provides very good examples of what can potentially go wrong with genetically modified foods, what has gone wrong, and why we should be exercising more caution in dealing with them. It’s a somewhat frightening book, if for no other reason than it exposes how much control the people making money from genetically modified foods are the same people determining their safety.
What Zach’s reading with Edie
When I’m Big ~ Another great book from the creators of Guess How Much I Love you. It’s especially nice right now, since the book talks about spring. The writing is so gentle and playful, I easily read this multiple times a day to Edie.
There’s a Wocket in My Pocket ~ I just about have this Dr. Suess classic memorized. It’s really fun to say all the funny words, and it holds Edie’s attention well since I have a lot of fun reading it.
Global Babies ~ Edie gets really excited when she sees the baby faces in this book. The simple text is about diversity, but I usually just read the labels that say where the baby is from like a modified five little piggies: “this little baby is from Thailand.”
That’s it for March!
Baby Led Weaning
15 years
Today, we set aside our worries about messy eating in favor of ‘baby led weaning.’ I had never heard of the term when Ashley brought it up last night, but it’s a simple enough concept: let your little one discover food.
We have been trying food with Edie for about a month and a half now, and although she readily goes for the spoon of food, she usually recoils after the food gets in her mouth (Exhibit A). We’ve tried sweet potato, avocado, brown rice, rice cereal, banana (that illicited the funniest response – you would’ve sworn we fed her a lemon!), apples, pears and peas. Our usually method was:
- Cook and/or mash up the food, with or without mixing in some breast milk
- Dip a spoon in
- Either move quickly enough to get it in her mouth before being intercepted by her hands, or hand her the spoon and hope she decided to put it in her mouth
I haven’t been too worried about it, but our pediatrician mentioned that iron becomes important around 6 months old (a subject I’m planning on investigating). Mainly, we’ve just been trying out food because she has shown so much interest in our food over the past couple of months.
Last night, Ashley started reading about baby led weaning, and after reading and talking more about it, we decided that it made sense and felt right to do with Edie. Edie has given us a lot of feedback that she doesn’t like being – I’m trying to think of a good way of putting this – manipulated. Ever since she’s had good control over her limbs, she’s resisted getting dressed, and I think we were getting similar feedback from spoon feeding her. We have some teething biscuits that are the only food she’s really gone for so far, but she’ll only suck on them if she can hold them. When I try to put it up to her mouth, she draws back to look at it and take it from my hand. Our main concern with letting her have it herself is that she’ll break off a chunk and choke on it. But when she has bitten off chunks, she always spits them out, and she has such a strong gag reflex that I don’t think we need more than the normal amount of parental vigilance while she’s eating.
So today we let her go for it on her own (with both of us watching carefully for any signs of choking, of course). Ashley cut up a chunk of pear, and put in front of Edie along with part of a teething biscuit. She picked up the pear, felt it a little bit, and took it right to her mouth. She still put a sour face on, as usual, but she tried it a few more times. And the teething biscuit went well, also.
The clean-up wasn’t too bad, although I did have to spend a bit of time getting teething biscuits out of Edie’s hair. She’s taken to holding things up to her ears a lot lately, like she’s listening to a shell, or (as I like to joke) like she’s receiving transmissions from space (and I hope I don’t regret saying that, because I’m well aware of the potential problems that it could indicate), and the food was no exception. And teething biscuits turn into plaster after they’ve been mixed with saliva and dried.
I’m curious to see how this goes, and I have a good feeling about it. It’s one of those techniques or experiences that, as a parent, just feels right and makes good common sense.
Baby Telekinesis
I’ve always harbored the feeling that if I really concentrate, focus and practice, that I could move things with my mind. Ever since I was young. It’s something that I know is a little silly, but part of me always holds out for it. And when I hear that yogis can do it, my western science mind gives in just a little bit.
But as a father, I’m observing and learning all the time. Someone told me once that our kids are our best teachers, and I wouldn’t argue yet. While I was watching Edie play at the table the other day, gradually dropping every toy to the floor, it hit me: this is where my belief in telekinesis comes from. All Edie has to do is want something, reach towards it, and possibly make a little noise, and – VOOM! – it’s in her hands. I’m slowly training her to believe on a visceral level in telekinesis. And I still can’t shake the feeling that maybe it’ll work for me, too.
Metoo Highchair
Edie sitting in her Metoo highchair
We recently received our Metoo highchair from phil&teds. It clamps easily onto our table, and feels really secure. It’s really light-weight and folds up small and flat. It comes with straps to go over little shoulders, we haven’t used them since trying them out. I think they may come in handy when Edie could potentially crawl out (and some of her back-bending of late makes me think that I should try them again). For now, they don’t really get in the way, but it would be nice to be able to detach them.
We’ve taken it to a few friends houses, and a few restaurants, with mixed results. Most places it’s worked just fine, but because it clamps directly onto things using a c-clamp, we’ve had to get creative sometimes. Last weekend we were at a forest service cabin with a group of friends, and the table there had a routed edged about 2″ wide that sloped down from table top. The top of the c-clamp is flat and about 3″, so I thought we were out of luck. But our friend Pete had the genius idea of flipping the clamp over (which I’m sure isn’t recommended by the company). We flipped it over, put down some cloth to protect the table top, and screwed the clamp down extra tight. It worked wonderfully the whole weekend, and Edie had fun playing with the bottom of the clamps!
The only other problem we’ve run into is that it’s not safe on small tables. We took it too a great Mediterranean restaurant here in Yakima, and all of their tables are square café tables that are only about 3 1/2′ wide. I ended up standing on the foot of the table the whole time to make sure that Edie didn’t tip the whole thing over!
We’ve really enjoyed having it at home, because it gets Edie right at the table with us, and it doesn’t take up as much room as a free standing highchair would. And she’s been loving it, too!